Trivial queries. Straws in the wind?

Ramani Aswath · 2012-06-18T20:10:01+00:00

Of late there seems to be a spate of trivial queries being posted on various categories in the CE community. The poster does not seem to be overly concerned about the clarity of what is being asked for nor the language. Seems as though the query is just tossed in to pass an idle minute. The answer may be no further than the prescribed text book. Presumably the questioner is a student of engineering. Does this sort of thing indicate a deeper malaise? Are the teachers falling down on the job or is the student too lazy or inattentive? Is he/she even interested in the replies? Should we spend quality time in researching and replying such queries? There are no simple yes/no answers to this. I am aware that there are site guidelines on how to raise queries and such. My concern is the apparent surge in silliness on the site. Am I over reacting?

Trivial queries. Straws in the wind?

Ramani Aswath

Member

Updated: Oct 26, 2024

Views: 1.1K

Of late there seems to be a spate of trivial queries being posted on various categories in the CE community. The poster does not seem to be overly concerned about the clarity of what is being asked for nor the language. Seems as though the query is just tossed in to pass an idle minute. The answer may be no further than the prescribed text book. Presumably the questioner is a student of engineering.
Does this sort of thing indicate a deeper malaise? Are the teachers falling down on the job or is the student too lazy or inattentive? Is he/she even interested in the replies?

Should we spend quality time in researching and replying such queries? There are no simple yes/no answers to this. I am aware that there are site guidelines on how to raise queries and such. My concern is the apparent surge in silliness on the site.
Am I over reacting?

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Ankita Katdare

Administrator • Jun 18, 2012

May be some of them took the quote "There are no stupid questions" a bit too literally?

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Kaustubh Katdare

Administrator • Jun 18, 2012

Well, the questions aren't stupid. But the real concern here is the quest for free lunches. I've had requests for ready made M.Tech projects, PhD thesis, ready made PPTs, abstracts, complete circuit diagram with explanation and so on.

We've been facing this problem since the day CE began getting attention from masses. About researching and answering this queries, my vote goes to 'NO'. Let's just ask the user to read text book and come up with very specific doubts that arise after one 'invests' time in studying the concepts.

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Ramani Aswath

Member • Jun 18, 2012

The_Big_K
About researching and answering this queries, my vote goes to 'NO'. Let's just ask the user to read text book and come up with very specific doubts that arise after one 'invests' time in studying the concepts.
That is a sensible option. Let the questioner show his willingness to invest time, a small price to pay for the returns. Of course the responder has some responsibility too to give a thought out answer and not an off-the-cuff toss.

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Kaustubh Katdare

Administrator • Jun 18, 2012

I've gotten used to dealing with people who continue to ask for ready-made projects. I found out that the fault is not entirely theirs. A lot of lecturers too ask their students to get the project from 'somewhere'. Then that attitude is passed on to the next generation 😀

I don't see any immediate, quick solution to fix that. Putting notices on the top hasn't helped in the past.

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robo_warrior

Member • Jun 19, 2012

Sir I am extremely sorry i am degrading your quality of website
i know neither my language nor my way of representation is good enough.
i have joined your site two days ago
but still my questions aren't silly enough how many 18 years guys would ever have a thought of accelarating atom to reduce the uncertainity.
it was the first time in my life i got someone intelligent enough to ask my question to
are you angry because of my post on existence of god
i think i'm not crazy enough for your website.
i'm leaving😭

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Ramani Aswath

Member • Jun 19, 2012

robo_warrior
Sir I am extremely sorry i am degrading your quality of website
i know neither my language nor my way of representation is good enough.
i have joined your site two days ago
but still my questions aren't silly enough how many 18 years guys would ever have a thought of accelarating atom to reduce the uncertainity.
it was the first time in my life i got someone intelligent enough to ask my question to
are you angry because of my post on existence of god
i think i'm not crazy enough for your website.
i'm leaving😭
Why in the name of heaven do you think that my post referred to you?
My post referred to others who put an ill spelled one liner asking for info they should have got if they were awake in class, assuming that they attended classes at all.
Your questions are not silly. Whether you are eighteen are eighty is irrelevant. Even in our Indian gurukul kind of teaching the teacher is considered to be one who has gone a little further along the road than the student. He is not a know all.
Don't be that sensitive. Just stay on and keep contributing. You are not the target of my post. In any case, if I had any issue with what you said I would have taken it up directly with you. I never play the game of hide and seek in academic matters.
You must be crazy to think that you are not crazy enough.
You are not degrading the web site.

Don't be silly and quit. Just get on with it.

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robo_warrior

Member • Jun 19, 2012

sorry sir i misunderstood😕

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Kaustubh Katdare

Administrator • Jun 19, 2012

That's another problem we face here on CE 😀 People think it's personal! 😖

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nibhani

Member • Jun 21, 2012

i m not satisfied with ur wordings sir....i m also a student and i have rights to ask the every question about which i have doubts...u mean to say that we should ask only standard question then i m not satisfied with u.....i will ask my doubts...and if at my question u will say me to leave ur website...then i will leave if u have any problem with my question...

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Ramani Aswath

Member • Jun 21, 2012

Of course you have the right to ask any question provided it does not intrude into another's rights. Whether you get a response or not is another matter. Please read the post objectively. There is nothing personal in it. it is just pointing out a trend, which is unfortunately becoming common in many fora not only on CE.

There is nothing like a standard question, nor a standard answer.

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Kaustubh Katdare

Administrator • Jun 21, 2012

nibhani
i m not satisfied with ur wordings sir....i m also a student and i have rights to ask the every question about which i have doubts...u mean to say that we should ask only standard question then i m not satisfied with u.....i will ask my doubts...and if at my question u will say me to leave ur website...then i will leave if u have any problem with my question...
#-Link-Snipped-# : This is not a personal discussion. The point of this thread is about answering questions for which answers can be directly obtained from textbooks or through some efforts of searching online. Wikipedia is an excellent resource.

Most of the times, questions are asked for the sake of asking - and we feel that we're doing someone else's homework. The strength of CrazyEngineers lies in answering specific doubts that arise after the poster puts in some efforts on their own. Those are the typical questions that don't get answered easily elsewhere.

No one here will ever ask fellow member to leave this site or not ask questions. But most of the experts here tend to answer the questions asked by members who show some efforts in finding the answers on their own.

A typical example:

1. Give me a power point presentation on the topic 'Home Automation'.

won't get much response than

2. I'm working on a PPT on the topic Home Automation. Following are the points I've collected on my own and I want someone to review them and offer suggestions. Also look at attached slides and tell me if I should add/subtract to slide #3, #4 ....

😀

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Amith Gupta

Member • Jun 22, 2012

its better to stay crazy here. :-D . Questions that a really out of the box(UFO Questions in my sense) and that require thinking and guidance from some experienced people are better. I've got some good help in that regards from our Mentor sir and i guess it goes well with the website's theme.

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Praveenan nt

Member • Jul 2, 2012

she asked what doubt she having? this is one of the forum should clarify all doubts of an individual.. according to me she didn't ask any silly questions and y u peoples making an issue instead of giving answer?

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Ramani Aswath

Member • Jul 3, 2012

ntprave
this is one of the forum should clarify all doubts of an individual..
I am afraid that there is no such obligation on members of this forum. The discussion has nothing personal whatsoever. The discussion revolves around a general trend in virtually all forums.
Let me give an example.
On a bonsai forum one of the questions was:'Should I water?'
If it were, 'How often should a Ficus Decora be watered in winter?' many seniors would have gladly answered.

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